The Passenger Trio con Brio Copenhagen

• Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919 - 1996): Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 24:
• 1 Weinberg: Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 24: I. Prelude & Aria. Larghetto 05:07
• 2 Weinberg: Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 24: II. Toccata. Allegro 04:01
• 3 Weinberg: Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 24: III. Poem. Moderato 10:24
• 4 Weinberg: Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 24: IV. Finale. Allegro moderato 10:30
• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): Piano Trio No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 100, D. 929:
• 5 Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 100, D. 929: I. Allegro 15:25
• 6 Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 100, D. 929: II. Andante con moto 08:58
• 7 Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 100, D. 929: III. Scherzando. Allegro moderato 06:31
• 8 Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 100, D. 929: IV. Allegro moderato 13:02
• Total Runtime 01:13:58

Info for The Passenger

Mieczysław Weinberg was only 25 years old when he composed his Piano Trio Op.24, and Franz Schubert was 30 when he wrote his Piano Trio No.2. Despite the fact that both composers were young, it is as if death is present in the music. This is most evident in Weinberg’s trio, which was composed in Moscow in 1945.

As a Polish Jew, Weinberg fled eastwards when the Nazis invaded Warsaw. It was at the last moment. Mieczysław Weinberg was the only one in his family to survive the Second World War. All four movements of the trio are characterised by unrest and despair. There are traces of klezmer music and the finale concludes with a gentle, tuneful waltz before the last notes die away. This waltz foreshadows Weinberg’s main work, the opera The Passenger from 1968, where it is precisely a waltz that links evil in a concentration camp to a future in which all are victims.

In Schubert’s Piano Trio No.2, written one year before Schubert’s early death in autumn 1828, the Swedish folk song Se solen sjunker (See the sun is setting) plays a key role. Schubert began work on the trio shortly after he had heard the song in Vienna, which is about the sun sinking behind the mountain peaks, while all hope is chased away by night’s shadows. And clearly the song made a strong impression on him, for the funeral march of the second movement, based on Se Solen sjunker, is the emotional climax of the trio.

Introduced by the cello, the Swedish folk song in Schubert’s instrumentation is like a statement about human loneliness and great sadness, mixed with elegance and marvellous beauty. All these qualities which the film director Stanley Kubrick further develops in his incomparable film Barry Lyndon, in which precisely this music is the musical thread of the narrative of the nobleman Barry Lyndon, who experiences a spectacular human and social déroute.

Although Mieczysław Weinberg and Franz Schubert lived in vastly different worlds, there is nevertheless a great deal that links them together. Via the music in the two trios, they make us painfully aware of the fact that life is fragile and only something we have on loan. It should be noted, they do so with music which, at the crucial moments – such as Weinberg’s waltz in an otherwise despondent conclusion, and Schubert’s musical staging of Se solen sjunker – praises beauty, making it appear as an attraction and a place of spiritual refuge. We are, though, dealing with a beauty which does not possess enough in its own euphony, and which the conductor Sergio Celibidache has described in the following opposite way: “In der Musik geht es nicht darum, daß Sie Schönheit erfahren. Es geht um Wahrheit. Schönheit ist nur der Köder.” “Music is not a question of your experiencing beauty. It is a question of truth. Beauty is only the bait.”

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

Trio con Brio Copenhagen
There are times when two plus two can equal three. Trio con Brio Copenhagen is one such instance, where family ties, cultural blending, and musical connections all converge to color, shape and energize the concerts they present worldwide. Korean sisters Soo-Jin and Soo-Kyung Hong and Danish pianist Jens Elvekjaer created the Trio in Vienna in 1999 with the concept of pairs coming together. The sisters had played together since childhood, and Jens Elvekjaer and Soo-Kyung Hong (who are now married) had played piano and cello duos together for years. According to Mr. Elvekjaer, "We have always felt that this ‘two and two equals three' dynamic provides a uniqueness and intensity to all of our performances.

"The strong personal bonds among the three of us greatly affect the way we conceive music together. We can be one hundred percent honest with each other in rehearsal and performance, and our different cultural backgrounds have provided an unusual perspective that shapes all that we do. It is a process of thinking without boundaries, cultural or otherwise, while staying within the great traditions that the music needs."

This high quality has been recognized not only by audiences and critics, but by some of the most important and renowned musicians of our time. In 2005, Trio con Brio Copenhagen was the recipient of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award, one of the most coveted in the world of chamber music. This biennial award, with a panel of prominent musicians as judges, carried with it appearances on twenty major concert series across the United States, including at New York City's Carnegie Hall, thereby introducing an extraordinarily accomplished "rising" piano trio to American audiences.

The Trio was praised from the time of its inception. About the Trio's debut CD, the American Record Guide wrote: "One of the greatest performances of chamber music I've ever encountered...What stands out from this ensemble is the range of tone and sound...They command an amazing range of timbres. Melodies sing with an aching sweetness, or seduce with wild eroticism, or haunt with impenetrable mystery." Gramophone magazine wrote: "It's easy to see what so impressed the judges...[the] performances can compete with the best available...airtight ensemble...a superb, greatly gifted chamber group."

The Trio first commanded international attention with a performance that took the highest prize at Germany's prestigious ARD-Munich Competition in 2002. Since then, it has won First Prize in additional competitions: Italy's Premio Vittorio Gui (Florence), Norway's Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, and the Danish Radio Competition. The ensemble also won the "Allianz Prize" for Best Ensemble in Germany's Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Second Prize in the Vienna Haydn Competition, and the Premio Trio di Trieste in Italy. Critics have praised the Trio for its "sparkling joie de vivre" and "magic dialogue"; a review of its performance at the Salzburg Mozarteum stated, "They cast a spell over their audience...so alive, so musical...ravishing."

Trio con Brio Copenhagen's busy schedule includes major concert halls in the U.S., Europe and Asia, such as Tivoli Concert Hall (Copenhagen), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Carnegie Hall (New York City), Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall (Mostly Mozart Festival, twice in 2009), the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Mozart-Saal (Vienna), Herkulessaal (Munich), Beethoven-Haus (Bonn), the Musikhalle (Hamburg), the Mozarteum (Salzburg), the Seoul and Sejong Arts Centers (Korea), Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo), Teatro Olimpico (Vicenza, Italy), the Båstad Chamber Music Festival (Sweden), and the Bergen and Trondheim Chamber Music Festivals (Norway).

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